June 24 - 217 BCE - The Battle of Lake Trasimene

Hannibal was a brilliant military commander and genius strategic thinker. In his fight against Rome, Hannibal had managed to cross the Alps and humiliate the Romans in Northern Italy before he reaches Lake Trasimene in Central Italy. Instead of waiting for a pitched battle, Hannibal ambushed the Roman army under Consul Gaius Flaminius. The Battle of Lake Trasimene featured the first notbale "turning movement" and a rout of the Roman army. While he would possibly even top himself at the Battle of Cannae the next year, Hannibal never made it to Rome, and eventually, some 70 years later, Carthage would be destroyed.